Beauty & the Beast: This Fairy Tale will Kill Your Children

I recently read a book by Australian author Jane Gilmore called Fairy Tale Princesses Will Kill Your Children. In it Gilmore discusses, disseminates and rewrites Disney’s original “top five princesses”: Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1989). While I watched all these Disney movies growing up, the one I least enjoyed was Beauty and the Beast.

In all these stories, a beautiful, unselfish, motherless young girl is beset by a jealous older woman and saved by the Handsome Prince. As Gilmore puts it:

The most insidious of these princess stories, however, is Beauty and the Beast, which teaches girls to stay with men, even in the face of abusive behaviour. This was the main point that stuck with me after reading Gilmore's book.

According to Gilmore, variations of this story have appeared in many cultures, including such stories as The Woman Who Married the Snake in Indian folklore, the Fairy Serpent in Chinese culture, and the Russian story called The Secret Flower. 

In all these versions, the youngest daughter is given to a man-beast in exchange for a debt and eventually, the daughter’s steadfast love for the man-beast lifts the curse imposed by an evil witch and transforms the beast into a Handsome Prince.

Oh, how lucky for the daughter!

Disney’s version stays true to this storyline. And even as a child, I knew something was off. All those singing and dancing teacups (which I loved!) could not distract me from the uneasy feeling that something dark and dangerous lurked underneath Belle’s relationship with the beast.

Even to a child, there is an obvious imbalance of power between Belle and the Beast. The Beast has a huge financial and physical advantage over Belle. Less obvious is his higher social standing and worldliness.

As an older male with a complex backstory, the Beast has more life experience and credibility than Belle, a young girl who has lived a sheltered life. The man-beast employs all these advantages to keep Belle in his thrall.

Gilmore eloquently points out what my childlike mind could not articulate: Belle is in an abusive relationship with the threatening and controlling beast. It is a relationship founded on coercive control. Beast’s happiness and salvation rely solely on Belle’s selflessness and compliant behaviour.

While these classic Disney fairy tales inspired my Happily Ever After feminist art series in 2021-2022, I could not bring myself to paint any version of Beauty and the Beast (not even the dancing tea cups). Instead of Beauty and the Beast, I focused my attention on a different beast: the wolf.

Making a connection with the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, Belle becomes Little Red Riding Hood (the nameless girl) and the Beast is the Wolf. In my retelling, Little Red tames the wolf into an obedient domesticated dog, eliminating the threat but turning it into an ally. The danger is neutralized, not romanticized.

Above: screen print by Leah Mariani

Unfortunately, in the version Disney tries to sell us, the beast is a formidable, wealthy, powerful man and not a trainable dog.